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This Month on DM’s Guild and DriveThru RPG : Oct 2020

9 Minute Read
Oct 1 2020
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Dare your friends to go into Lovecraft’s haunted house and then take a trip to the dinosaur filled theme park this month on DriveThru RPG and DM’s Guild.

Through the Breach – Penny Dreadful One Shot

“Penny Dreadful One Shots are single session adventures for a party that are only released as PDFs. They allow Fatemasters to choose whether to insert them into an ongoing campaign or to run a quick and dirty session of Through the Breach.


The Fated meet with a Scavenger who needs help bringing in a wayward construct. He offers to split the considerable profits fairly, and even pays for the train out from Ridley. But as always in Malifaux, things aren’t what they seem. The construct has a damaged Soulstone; a flash of neon light, a big twist, and some weird geometry will see the Fated brought into a realm they’ve never experienced before.

Into the Logic Engine is a challenging One Shot adventure for the Through the Breach roleplaying game. It requires the Core Rules to play.”

A Penny Dreadful adventure, this game promises twists, turns, and a sort of aesthetic that only Penny Dreadful can provide. Boasting itself as a challenging one shot, this is the game to pick up if you want a game that’s willing to make you work a little harder for that victor or if you have players that can stand to be messed with a little. While still having fun, of course.

 

The Dare

Halloween night.  A haunted house.  Will you live to see the morning?

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The Old Barnaker House. Every kid has heard about it. Everybody has a different awful story about it. All of them agree it is a very bad place.

But here you are on Halloween Night, all because of that jerk Roger. He dared you and your friends to spend the night there. You couldn’t let him bully you. You will show him who is chicken! Everybody knows that there are no such things as ghosts… right?

Get your slingshot and your pocket knife. Grab some candy and ready your Rubik’s Cube. You and your friends are going to go face-to-face with the horrors of the Barnaker House. Hopefully you will live to see the dawn.


The Dare is a one-shot scenario for Call of Cthulhu® 7th Edition, intended for four or more players. Expanded and revised from Kevin Ross classic scenario from 1990, this scenario has been fully updated for even greater horror. Long out of print, this scenario is once more available to terrify players (thanks to a nightmarishly tardy Kickstarter-funded project by Sentinel Hill Press). They said it would never see the light of day. They were wrong!

This product includes:

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  • A full-length scenario, inspired by 80s horror movies wherein pre-teens do battle with an undying monster and its house of horrors.
  • Extensive advice for Keepers on how to bring the horrors of the Barnaker house to life.
  • Detailed floor plans of the Barnaker house.
  • ‘The Call of Kid-thulhu’ rules, a streamlined version of the traditional Call of Cthulhu rules and ideal for introducing new players to the game.
  • “Grab the Machete!” — a suggested viewing list of 80s horror films (written by Brian Sammons), perfect for inspiring Keepers and players alike.
  • A set of 10 pre-generated kid-investigators, complete with more than 20 portraits, allowing players to customize their characters, complete with super-1980s style character sheets.

The Barnaker House is waiting.”

This may be a perfect Halloween game. Set in the Call of Cthulhu universe The Dare let’s you become a kid about to explore the local haunted house. Will it be a mistake? Probably. Will you have fun playing? Almost definitely. This game invokes a strong Stranger Things feeling in me with indescribable monsters and legitimately high stakes but with that uniquely childlike sense of curiosity and fearlessness.

 

There Is A Witch At The Edge Of The Wood

“This is a game of mystery, suspicion, and dark gothic horror set in the haunted woods of colonial Massachusetts. You and the strangers you have found yourself with are traveling up from Boston to the distant town of Dover, well over 70 miles away. Your reasons are varied, but Providence has thrown you all together, and it is always safer to travel in numbers. There are Witches in the wood they say, and no God-fearing Puritan would risk that alone. But what if one of your number was, in secret, a Witch themselves?

All that is required is a game master, and a few six sided dice.”

Having lived pretty close to Salem, MA for quite some time, this game fills me with nostalgia and joy. A little traditional tabletop RPG and a little Werewolf you’ll need to work with your group to stay safe from the witch in the woods… and maybe figure out who the witch among you is. But if living near Salem has taught me anything, it’s that said witch probably just wants to sell you overpriced crystals and touristy shirts.

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Kids’ Dungeons

“Play with your children, it’s finally possible! Introduce your children to role-playing games and stimulate their imagination with Kids’ Dungeons, a role-playing game for children aged 3 to 8 years old.

The rules are extremely simple and has been specially designed to awaken your children to mathematical curiosity. Two fully compatible systems are possible:

  • youngest kids will have fun discovering numbers and comparing sizes.
  • older ones will be able to practice additions.

Explore dungeons with your children!
With the light class-based system, make kids feel like they’re turning into heroes!
7 characters available
Put their reflection to the test with The Jail
Rediscover a lost childish fantasy sensation with the mini background World of Crystal Castle and its crazy bestiary.

Maximum recommended playing time 20-35 minutes. Further specific advice for playing with children is given in the book.

Start the adventure right away with The Great Bathroom Flooding, a ready-to-play scenario included in the book.

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So go for it, brave adventurers! The adventure and its treasures are waiting for you!”

I’m always a sucker for kid friendly RPGs and Kids’ Dungeons hits the bullseye. Play short games with an emphasis on basic skills an education in a way that feels fun and like story telling. If you have children, get them started on cooperative roleplaying games early, and if you know somebody who has a kid get them involved in that world, too!

 

Dino World

“Explore an abandoned dinosaur theme park in search of your quarry…but beware! Predators of all sorts stalk the crumbling ruins and toppled tourist attractions of Dino World.

Dino World is an Eberron: Oracle of War salvage mission for Tier 2 characters that can be completed in 3-4 hours. It is Adventurers League legal if used in conjunction with the Salvage Bases and Missions supplement.

Dino World was designed with the Eberron setting in mind, but it can be easily adapted to most fantasy settings, and makes a great one-shot game or sidequest. As an added scaly bonus, it uses every single dinosaur stat block published for 5e!

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This is a DMs Guild Adept product. The Dungeon Masters Guild Adept program brings talented individuals together for creative development. Guild Adept products are identified with the golden ampersand.”

It’s Jurassic Park. But in an Eberron inspired D&D setting. That’s the entire premise and I am absolutely sold on it. Does my artificer need to fight dinosaurs? No. Do I want her to? Well now I do! Add Dino World to your established game as a side-quest or play it as a silly one-shot and for a bardic inspiration try to get the whole table to hum the song – you know the one.

 

Snow And Ice

“The arctic environment holds a mysterious atmosphere of danger and discovery for those who dare to settle there and those who venture to explore it. One can never be sure what lurks over that nearby snow drift, inside that dark cave, or under that frozen ice. Threats loom over the next hill, but treasures may also be found hidden among the seldom explored corners  of the harsh environment.

Snow and Ice, Things Nasty and Nice provides a collection of character backgrounds, modular encounters, creatures and NPCs, magical items, and maps for your arctic campaign. The features included work nicely with the Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden official D&D product or with any arctic adventure in your own game world. This sample includes:

  • An original arctic themed character backgrounds: Ice Fisher
  • An original scalable modular encounters: Leader of the Pack – Hungry wolves work together to hunt their prey.
  • Three original NPCs and creatures.
  • Three original magic items.
  • An original encounter / battle maps: The tavern offers some shelter and comfort from the frigid conditions.”

Now that Icewind Dale is officially out snowy and specific supplements are starting to appear. Adding character backgrounds, encounters, NPCs, creatures, and items all themed to fit in within the new wintery setting, Snow and Ice will add just a little more to a place that’s already very cool (or cold). Plus, it’s free.

 

Isle Of The Dying Moon

“Twelve days ago, the moon began to die.

Tides shifted and animals panicked. Temples and wizarding schools were thrown in disarray, trying to find the source before the moon disappears entirely. A band of heroes sails to the source of the disruption: an island cloaked in shadow, terrorized by a mysterious figure living in the woods…

Isle of the Dying Moon is a creepy four-hour adventure for Tier 3 characters (10th-12th level). It contains:

  • A .ZIP file containing three Dungeondraft maps for use in the game
  • A printer-friendly version of the adventure
  • An opening battle on the high seas, and a deadly final fight with [SPOILERS] a trio of terrifying hags in a bid to save the moon itself.
  • Rhyming incantations for the villains’ horrid spellcasting

The tone of this adventure is dark and urgent, with potential for further horror as characters travel through the cursed forest and face the creatures of the island.”

There will never be enough modules written specifically for higher level characters, and this one grabbed my attention right away. The game starts with the highest stakes possible and calls for established heroes to save the day with a plot that feels very high fantasy but also a little like a video game. With a tone that’s a little dark and scary, this is the perfect one shot adventure for the beginning of the Halloween season.

 

Birds Of Paradise

“Dive into Magdalenas Grovebright’s diary, curated and organized by the Baldurian Owl Archimedes Quill and meet subraces of the aarakocra and kenku.

• Choose from twelve aarakocra and kenku subraces* to play like the lively Feywild Hummingbird, the nomadic Delimbiyran Flamingo, the sinister Thayan Hoatzin, or the chill Icewind Penguin, all completely illustrated by Raluca Marinescu & Christina Kraus; written by Adamantine Best Selling creator Florian Emmerich & Katrina Bresnick

• Encounter and interact with each subrace using unique NPC stat blocks and story hooks

• Master magical secrets with five new spells

• Let your party meet Magdalena Grovebright on the table or VTT with a colorful Trash Mob Mini & Token

• Build your unique character with the custom (form fillable) character sheet created by Francita Soto”

D&D bird races are some of the most interesting additions to the game and deserve so much move love. Birds of Paradise gives us the twelve subraces to play along with spells, encountes, NPCs, story hooks, and custom character sheets. Are you more of a hummingbird or a penguin?

 

What’s the last gaming accessory or book you’ve picked up? Have any of my monthly picks piqued your interest? What supplements are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments.

 

Happy Adventuring!

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